21292 km Singapore!

After leaving Penang the weather changed for the worse. Not a day went by without at least one decent shower and that takes some getting used to after all this nice weather the last months ;) Ah well, at least it was not cold and a bit of rain can actually be quite refreshing in this heat. I took it easy from Penang heading south knowing I still had plenty of time left to reach Singapore. Cycling about 100 km a day is as relaxed as I can go. I spend a couple of days in KL, of course I paid a visit to the Petronas towers and had a look over the city from there. The view is not that impressive, but at least I can claim I've seen it ;) I slept, as I do most of the times nowadays, in Chinatown. Lots of nice budgetoptions to choose from there. Every city in Malaysia seems to have a Chinatown

After two days I could not see another big building or shopping mall any longer and headed out to my next destination: Melakka. For those of you who don't know, Melakka is an old Dutch colony (as well as Portuguese and English) and there are some nice things to see. I've visited the maritime museum, been to the "Stadhuys" and enjoyed the old dutch architecture that can still be seen at some places. There are some really nice "herenhuizen" over here. I bumped into Tjeerd here again as well. It turned out we had even slept in the same guesthouse in KL, unbelievable if you consider how many of those there are. Tjeerd is doing fine as well and stepped on a bus the next day back to Penang. From there he will take a ferry to Indonesia to continue his trip.

For me it's almost over and I headed out from Melakka for the last time, the end goal of this trip will be Singapore. It's still a good 270 km from Melakka, but I had some days of rest and decided the daily record should, once more, be broken :) This time not by accident, but just because I feel the 200k mark needs to be crossed at least "once" this trip. And this is the last chance for that!

In the end I did not quite make it all the way and decided to sleep in Johor Bahru, just before the Singapore border. I was tempted to go on, but common sense got the better of me. It would not be smart to cycle on since it was getting dark and Johor Bahru was also a lot cheaper to spend the night. So the counter got stuck at 256 km. Needless to say, I was kinda tired the next day but it was not far anymore. Entering Singapore was very similar to KL, with lots of unavoidable highways that you seem to get stuck on no matter if you want to or not. I'm happy I did not attempt that the day earlier, because it would definitely not be a smart thing to do! To be honest the city itself is a bit disappointing. It's just another big city like I've seen so many already on this trip. There are some nice markets and a "China town" as well as a "little India" Other than that there does not seem to be to much to do or see. I've been told the zoo here is nice, so maybe I'll have a look at it. Then again, maybe I'm just getting spoiled because I've seen so much already.

So now after 21292 km of cycling in many countries, it's all over. This trip has come to an end and a whole new adventure awaits me when I get back on dutch soil. My plane should land in the morning of the 5th on Schiphol airport and I've been told my appartment is still in one piece, so it looks like I at least have a place to stay......

See you all again soon!

Erik

Update 02/03/2017: I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog. I have opened a new blog for my trip starting in Rio de Janeiro 25/04/2017. You can follow my journey on http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/erik_devries/1/tpod.html